Meet the cocaine kingpin playing professional football while on the run from authorities under several aliases as wanted criminal who uses his wealth to buy teams and stadiums

Sebastian Marset had always wanted to play football. When he was young and worked at a gas station, he spent all his salary on a David Beckham track jacket.

Marset and his friends grew up playing in the streets, making goals out of bricks and using markers to write numbers on their backs.

But from his time as a semi-professional footballer it was clear that he lacked the quality to progress his career.

It was clear to some that Marset’s footballing desire was motivated by money, after he was seen by friends walking home from nightclubs because he could not afford the bus after rubbing shoulders with the wealthier members of society.

Instead, the Uruguayan would turn to a life of crime, where he tried to cultivate the nickname ‘The King of the South’.

His first interaction with Monteviedo’s criminal underworld was actually quite minor, as reported by the WashingtonPost.

He was arrested at the age of 18 for possession of stolen property and a year later for possession of narcotics.

However, it wasn’t long before he was entrusted with much more: at the age of 22, Marset accepted a job receiving a shipment of marijuana – a job usually assigned to a team of men, but he had the traffickers’ trust earned.

But the police had been tipped off and Marset was ambushed by officers, where he immediately turned himself in, with one officer recalling him as smart and respectful.

After taking his mug shot, one of the officers recalled telling a colleague, “This guy is going to be a big problem for us one day.”

It wouldn’t be long before his worries seemed to be coming true, as Marset left prison in 2018 at the age of 27 with a string of criminal contacts.

Marset joined Deportivo Capiata in 2021, where he offered the players large sums of money for wins

Deportivo Capiata’s biggest win came against Argentine giants Boca Juniors

He managed to make connections with both the Brazilian and Italian organized crime networks and it wouldn’t be long before he traveled to Paraguay to build his empire.

There he would forge his first alias, under the name Gabriel de Souza Beumer.

In 2021, Marset made his first foray into football, turning up at Deportivo Capiata and announcing himself as a new signing for his silver Lamborghini.

There he made an agreement with his teammates that he would pay them thousands of dollars on top of their current contracts for each victory.

The only problem was that Marset had found his way into a starting spot – he was wearing a number 10 jersey which his performances would not live up to as Capiata struggled to win matches.

Capiata was the pride of the suburb of Asuncion, the club having famously claimed the title from Boca Juniors in 2014.

But it had been a struggle for Capiata in the years that followed and they were relegated to Paraguay’s second division.

After arriving in 2021, Marset started funding improvements for the team, including new televisions, physio beds and better food in the cafeteria.

Although he is not officially listed as an owner, investigators say he poured money into the club and took some of the revenue, but that Marset laundered money through Capiata.

Head coach Jorge Nunez had no intention of starting the drug lord until the players surrounded the boss and insisted that Marset had to play.

After joining the club, Marset spent thousands of dollars improving Deportivo Capiata’s facilities

“I kept asking myself, ‘Who is this guy?’ Nuñez said, adding, “I had an obligation to win or they would fire me.

‘But it wasn’t the same for him. He was just having fun.”

Marset seemed relatively uninterested in the possibilities of raising his profile in professional football until he heard in May 2021 that officers were trying to fine him.

His training with Capiata stopped and his name was immediately removed from the roster. Although none of his teammates in Paraguay heard from him again, Marset did not stop playing football.

After going to ground, it was revealed in 2023 that the drug lord was now living in Bolivia and that same year he was said to have bought Los Leones El Torno FC.

Only this time, Marset followed in his idol’s footsteps, finally wearing the number 23, made famous by David Beckham during his Real Madrid days.

After speaking to Canal 4, Marset appears to have gone underground again, with authorities circling it.